Organization

 

January always seems to be the month that people say "I am going to get organized!!" Whether they do or not is debatable. I am focusing on STAYING organized. The photo above is (blurry) picture of my quilt prep organization. I have five stacks of these: they are technically ornament holders without the dividers. Each holds a project: fabric, pattern or sketch, any ideas I have for quilting, and sometimes thread. I have one for each quilting project. It keeps them tidy, out of the way, and I don't worry about using the fabric for other things! (<- Most important thing, right there!).

The labels are just file labels, and I peel them off when I am done and re-use the box. They also serve as a display stand for my design board when I am not using it. (Double duty!)

I like this - it works for me, obviously, and it allows me to see what projects I am planning. Right now they vary from "Clothing" (which currently holds pattern and fabric for vests and a light jacket), "Kits," which has small wool kits from Las Colchas, in San Antonio (go there, buy things! I love that store!!) to a box for Two Fabric Bargello quilts, Large Hex Garden, and lots of others.

Of course, there are always projects that sneak up on me, that never get a box. I have one that I want to do tonight, as a matter of fact: The Minimalist Hawkeye logo. It shouldn't be hard (aka, "how hard can it be?" - the catchphrase of my old college gaming group). I hope to have the top done by tomorrow, and then I can set it aside with the others to be quilted.

Tops waiting to be quilted don't go back into boxes; instead, they get rolled up with any templates, designs, sketches and such until such time as I get to them. I try not to pin until I am ready to work on them - we have a finite number of pins, after all!

How do other people stay organized? How do you store projects to be done/in progress? How do you store your stash, for that matter? Ours is on shelves, with fat quarters separated out. Scraps smaller than a fat quarter get sorted into one of three tubs.

(And yes, I was a gamer. All sorts of Tabletop RPGs... from DC Heroes to Star Frontier to D&D. Still remember most of my characters, too!). I miss some of my characters.... *sigh*